content warning: gore and graphic violence
"Can you see him now?"
Natsu sighed, annoyed and exasperated, but scanned the small living room of his home. Jellal sat before him, an analyzing sharpness to his gaze that he found unsettling and familiar. Perhaps a bit of the madman from the Tower of Heaven still lingered in Jellal, a hint of Hyde within the Jekyll that whispered the dark secrets of the damned. Lucy and Happy sat beside him on the sofa, silent and watching and listening.
He opened his mouth to speak—but stopped, Zeref's dark eyes boring into his own from where he stood within the shadows of the gnarled tree trunk.
He watched, a harsh whine rising in his ears, as Zeref put a finger to his lips and shook his head. Natsu gulped, averting his gaze to the wooden whorls of the low table at his knees.
"No," he said, a dry croak in his words. "He's not here."
Jellal blinked, something knowing and missing.
Natsu flicked his eyes to Zeref's ghost, his brother's image darkened in the umbra of late evening candles. He was smiling, and Natsu hated it.
"It's okay," Jellal said, reaching into the depths of his cloak. "I know how… persuasive he can be."
From his bodice, he procured a small plump pot: an incense bowl, carrying a smell like myrrh and cinders. Jellal set the bowl on the table, removing the lid to reveal a twisting pattern of sandy perfumes on a bed of white ash.
"You don't know anything," Natsu scowled. "You were never really possessed by Zeref."
"Natsu," Lucy quipped, irritation clenched in her jaw. "He's trying to help."
Sparks flew from Jellal's fingernails. "It's fine. He is right, after all. I have no real experience with the Black Wizard."
The incense smoldered, pale smoke curling into the air. A sharp smell of harvest moons and mountain waterfalls touched Natsu's nose. Memories, old and unbidden, lurked like faded images in his mind. There was a… comfort, he supposed, in that vague nostalgia.
"But you are not the first person I've spoken with about his influence." Jellal cupped his hands in the haze. A cloud pooled in his palms, brimming like water over his knuckles. "Between what I've learned through the years and Urtear's warnings, I believe I can provide some insight. Close your eyes, breathe deeply."
Jellal pushed the fumes towards Natsu. He did as he was told, inhaling through his nose and filling his lungs from the bottom up. The sharp sting of the smoke in his nostrils resurfaced different memories, more recent ones of summer days warmed by the love of a dragon.
"Open your eyes."
The lacrima in their home seemed to shine a little cleaner, the shadows not as deep as before. Zeref was nowhere to be seen, and Natsu could feel an ease settle onto his shoulders, chasing away the temperamental scratch on his mind that he hadn't realized was there.
"Feel better?" Jellal asked, placing the lid on the incense bowl. Smoke curled up through the holes in the ornate top, oscillating and dispersing through every current of breath and breeze.
"Yeah," Natsu mumbled. "Is he gone?"
"I doubt it, not truly. But he should be less imposing now. Only for a little while, so we can talk."
The man hadn't changed much in the three years since the war ended, the faint wrinkles around his eyes the only sign that he was getting older. Crime Sorciere had grown under his guidance, expanded into a larger network of spies and allies, all devoted to extinguishing evil. While he was no longer a wanted man, his guild retained their operations from the shadows, garnering a reputation of trust among the inner circles of the official guilds. It was still true that none of what they did was technically legal, but no one could argue that they weren't necessary. So their secret was kept, an unspoken pact between partners and friends.
Crime Sorciere had become something much larger than Jellal could have hoped for, but he never forgot where he came from.
"So tell me," Jellal began, steepling his fingers below his chin. "I trust you know that this apparition you see is not actually Zeref, right?"
Natsu nodded. "It's my etherious. The curse he gave me."
Lucy shifted in her seat. "It was my theory that Zeref used a piece of his magic when he made the books, and that this was the core of his demons."
"Neither of you are wrong, but there's more to it." He raised his hand, finger drawing a ghostly picture through the smoke: a simple figure of a man, holes in the chest, stomach, and head. "Every living being is made of the same structure: body, soul, and magic. Our magic is kindled by our souls, our souls are in turn protected by our bodies, and our bodies serve as a conduit for magic should we choose to use it. All connected, all in balance. When one is destroyed, the rest falls to ruin."
Jellal dashed his hand through the smoke, scattering the picture of the man. Natsu watched the flurries of brume particles for a moment. He remembered this lesson. Igneel had taught him about the essentials of life long ago.
"Your structure is unbalanced," Jellal continued. "Between the different aspects of you, there is a fracture."
A fracture, or perhaps a crack in the glass, Natsu thought. It had been there since the beginning, since before his brother's specter began to haunt his waking moments.
"The Leviathan," Lucy said, her thoughts making their own connections. "It caused all of this?"
"The Leviathan quickened the process, but the cause goes back much further—400 years ago, when this all began."
"Calibran." Natsu's mind flashed to the memory of the valley―the two small mountains that bloomed with flowers as they watched over his family. His heart pulled with detached sadness, remembering the dying warmth of his father's love, his mother's humming a distant echo. "His library, where Zeref made his demons… and me."
"The other demons of Zeref's Books are beings of ethernano, not flesh and blood like us." Jellal's eyes shifted, and Natsu thought he saw a spark of hunger in the man's deep gaze. It was gone the next instant. "You are an exception to this. But while your body may be of a mortal construct, your soul is not."
Natsu felt Lucy's hand flinch against his arm. "What do you mean? His soul…?"
She took the questions out of Natsu's head. He was glad for it—he didn't have the courage to ask them himself.
Jellal sat forward. Gone was his didactic aer as he sighed a heavy breath. A small pity hung from the line of his jaw, a settled concern weighing on his brow.
"This… may be hard for you to hear," he started, his words hesitant and low. "I've been thinking about this for a long time. Before you came to the guild, before Igneel took you in… you died. No wizard, past or present, has ever been able to bring the dead back to life. Not truly. Not even Zeref."
His words hung like a broken chime in the silence that followed. Lucy said nothing, her touch on his arm trembled. Happy whined, a sorrowful sound that splintered a piece of Natsu's resolve. He was not ready for this conversation, not ready for the implications entailed in the notion that he was alive when he wasn't supposed to be. If a ship is replaced plank by plank, is it still the same ship?
"No," Lucy hissed. Natsu could feel her rage building, a tremble that started as a whisper and grew to a roar. "You're wrong. He has his own soul, or he would have-"
"Pieces," Jellal said, not as a quip or a snide, just a word that Natsu knew held true. "Pieces of a soul, small and weak, but enough to hold a semblance of life. But not enough to sustain one."
Lucy faltered. Jellal's gaze flicked to Natsu—he almost flinched, a prick of cold unease, something that growled at the other man's dark, unspoken thoughts.
"Zeref preserved your body, then he filled in the missing pieces of you with his own essence, a new spark that would ignite your life, and you began anew. A fresh start, an untapped source of ethernano, all this would lead to an as-before undiscovered way of harnessing magic."
"Curses," Natsu muttered. "You're talking about curse power."
Jellal nodded. "Hundreds of years ago, the One Magic developed and grew into the many different kinds of magic we see today. Curses are another way to the same end. Your first magic—before Igneel taught you the Dragon Slayer arts—was your curse. This thing you see, this phantom of Zeref, it is your axis reaching out to you. It's the pith of your nature."
"Stop," Lucy snapped. "How can you say something like that?"
Jellal frowned at her, an apology hidden in the outline of his lips. "You can choose not to believe me, but that won't make your issues go away."
Natsu swallowed past the hot bile in his throat. Through the smoke and the cloaking scent of burning wildflowers, a dark flame roared, remembering a life and a demise that he couldn't.
"You expect me to believe that… that E.N.D. is who he's supposed to be?" Lucy pressed forward, jabbing a finger at Jellal's face. Anger and frustration flushed her cheeks, vermillion blooming around her neck. "How dare you!"
"Natsu is Natsu!" Happy yelled with her.
"Enough."
He felt her stiffen at his side. There was a quaking between the two of them, a shaken composure catalysting from unbidden thoughts and sharp truths. Maybe it had actually been him who was trembling the whole time, an uncomfortable quiver that rolled through him from the ache in his heart to his fingertips.
"I don't really get what this is all about, but I know he's right. I… I think I knew it all along." Her eyes shone with denial as he looked to her. How strange, he thought, that between the two of them, she was the one denying his ill-granted fate more vehemently than him.
Tired resignation sagged down on his shoulders, and yet he did his best to smile, to reassure and comfort his wife and friend. They were just outsiders at the precipice of the storm, rocks being bashed against the waves of his turmoil.
But they would be alright in the end, whether he was there with them or not.
"It's okay though," he continued, hoping his words sounded stronger than his conviction. "Nothing has changed."
"Natsu, I want you to listen to me." Jellal's voice weighed firm as he spoke. His gaze bore into Natsu, a dark but steady assurance that caught him off-guard. "The only person who can decide who you are meant to be is you. Not Zeref, not Igneel… you."
These were words that Jellal had probably told himself a million times. For Natsu, they rang as true as a bell without a clapper.
He had already decided who he was three years ago… and it wasn't enough.
But Lucy took his hand, sighed a deep breath through the dwindling smoke in their home, and pressed onward.
"So what do we do." Not a question, but almost a demand, a determination to a resolution.
Jellal grinned. "We put you back in balance, by uniting you with the One Magic."
"That sounds really hard," Happy muttered. "How are we gonna do that?"
"By taking Zeref's original formula and tweaking it a bit." Jellal stood, his cloak falling around his form. "I expect we'll find it in the ruins of Calibran."
"And then what will happen?" Lucy asked.
"A cup that is full cannot hold more than it is meant to. Over time, the pieces of your curse will fade away or be absorbed. In theory."
"'In theory'?"
"Nothing like this has ever been done before. I can only speculate."
"I'm not a damn science experiment," Natsu bit. Perhaps the effects of the incense were already wearing off.
"You're right, you're not." Jellal reached for the bowl, twisting a knob on the lid that closed the venting holes and cut out the lingering smoke. "You are a living being, just like everything else. And like all living things, we become ill and need treatment. That's all this is, Natsu. You asked for my help because you knew my past and you trusted me. Trust me again now, and accept it."
Jellal pocketed the pot and made to leave. Natsu thought he would walk out the door without another word. Lucy stood from the couch, foreboding uncertainty falling silently from her teeth as her mouth opened for words that wouldn't come. Jellal opened the door, but halted in the frame of darkening twilight. The echoing dirge of crickets drifted in from the woods, accompanied by a cool spring breeze.
"When we find this place," he said evenly, a hidden worry beneath his words. "We may stumble into much more than we expect, and I don't mean the monsters. You need to be prepared. We have a lot of work to do."
The blooming night swallowed him as he stepped past the threshold. He left behind a fading fragrance and a heavy dissonance. Lucy sighed, all eyes lingering on the door for a beat.
"You think he's gonna go find Erza?" Natsu asked, more out of genuine curiosity than a need to turn the silence into comfort.
"Obviously." Happy snickered. "Wish him luck getting into Fairy Hills!"
The banter did not carry after that. Lucy's hands tangled nervously before her. Natsu stood, Happy hopped up to follow him to her side. The warmth of his hand pressed into the cool fabric of her t-shirt, rubbing comforting circles on her back. Lucy huffed through her nose and chewed on her fingernail.
"I wish you had told me you were going to contact Jellal," she said around her knuckle. "But I'm glad you did… I think."
Natsu shrugged. "I only just thought of it today. Figured he'd know something about how to help me relearn magic. Didn't know he would get here so damn fast."
"He was at the wedding." Lucy remembered the shadow in the hedges beside Erza, her blushing smile. "Probably wasn't that far away to begin with."
"Oh," Happy blinked, clinging to Natsu's knee. "Right, that was yesterday."
That's obvious, but it's absurd at the same time. They got married. A day ago. It's an aspect of their lives that they're still coming to terms with, such a simple truth on top of the much harder, more devastating reals that have piled on their shoulders that neither of them want to acknowledge. Standing there now, in the liminal time between Jellal's arrival and whatever comes next, Natsu can feel it, and he's sure Lucy can, too.
They leave for Phlox in the morning, a sleepy town near the Chicory Mountains, then it's the shortest road straight to the Orchard. What they find there will ignite the conclusion of all that has been building for 400 years—for better or for worse.
Natsu's stomach growled, an angry and prolonged sound that reverberated in the tense quiet. Frowning, he rubbed his belly. Aside from the gracious lunch Erza had brought to him, it had been several hours since he had eaten. For Lucy, it was even longer. She laughed at the sheepish look of shame on his face, a laugh Natsu thought he hadn't heard in a while.
"Come on," she said, taking his hand. "Let's see what we can find for dinner."
No sooner had they opened the door to their pantry when there was a knocking on the door, hurried raps that bounced through the house. Natsu peered over Lucy's head, sharing her confusion.
"Did he forget something?" Happy asked.
She left Natsu and Happy to their rummaging, padding to the front door. The night was growing quickly, leaking through the cracks of the door frame.
"If you need a place to stay, we can-" Lucy started, but it wasn't Jellal waiting for her on the other side. "Bisca?"
She smiled guiltily at Lucy, aware that the time and circumstances for her visiting didn't quite match. Around her knees, three children clung to her hands and legs. Asuka and the twins, Sonya and Byanka stared up at her with big, anticipating eyes.
"I'm so sorry to come by unannounced," Bisca huffed. Her cheeks were flushed, as if she had rushed across town to make it to their house. "But the twins insisted that they see Natsu. I couldn't talk them into waiting till tomorrow."
"Tomorrow is too late!" Byanka whined.
Lucy crouched down to the children, a tender smile and gentle voice. "Too late for what? Can you tell me what you want to say?"
"Please, miss." Sonya mumbled, a much more subdued and polite child from her sister. Her big, teal eyes glistened with an acute terror. "He's going to die."
The chill that ran down Lucy's spine like a shock of frozen water caught her off-guard. Her smile winked out, staring up at Bisca. The sharpshooter frowned.
"That's… also why I came."
Lucy stood, stepping aside for them to enter. "It's alright, I appreciate you coming all this way."
But Bisca lingered in the door for a moment, holding back the children that tugged at her arms. Her eyes darted around the living room—no doubt she could smell the settled incense in the air, see the dissipating smoke. When Bisca looked at Lucy, she was surprised to see a hint of fear in the depths of her eyes, in the tight line of her lips.
"Is it… safe?"
She couldn't answer, not at first. Alzac told her. Of course he did. That wasn't why sharp bubbles of livid ire roiled through her veins. Lucy wanted to snap—to slam the door in Bisca's face.
"Hey, Bisca!"
Lucy turned, feeling the jagged clarity of her choler move with her. Natsu stepped out of the kitchen, a rump of smoked-beast clenched in his teeth and his hand elbow-deep in a bag of candied nuts. Various other snacks and assorted foods were squished under his arms. He couldn't decide, Lucy knew, so he'd just grabbed everything. Happy rode on his shoulder, licking at a stiff flank of salted fish.
"What brings you by?" Natsu asked around a mouthful of half-masticated meat. Bisca's mouth dropped open, stuttered words searching and failing. His eyes dropped low, to the three pairs of eyes that stared at him as if he were an animal in a zoo. "Oh no, was there a playdate I forgot about?"
The twins and Asuka broke free of Bisca's grasp, stumbling through the door to rush to Natsu's knees. Natsu yelped and braced as Happy wisely abandoned his perch. As they tumbled to the floor and food scattered through the air and onto the furniture, as Natsu and the children laughed and wrestled, Lucy turned back to Bisca.
"Yes, I think it's pretty safe."
There was acid in her words, she didn't try to hide it. Bisca nodded, something akin to guilt tightening across her lips.
"Isn't it a little late for a game?" Natsu hoisted Asuka into the air, dangling her like a small kitten under her arms. The little girl laughed and kicked her legs. "When's your bedtime?"
"We have to tell you something!" Byanka wailed, small fists thumping lightly on his leg. "It's really important!"
Natsu set Asuka on the floor, crouching to their waiting and waning patience. The young girl hurried to her mother, taking Bisca's hand and watching owlishly as the twins stepped close to him. Lucy closed their front door, standing beside Bisca and her daughter as something arcane and novel unfolded in the space between them. Happy settled on her shoulder, a shared look of unknowing passing between them.
"All right, I'm all ears." Natsu said.
Byanka grasped Natsu's fingers, her hands dwarfed next to his own. Turning his hand up, Byanka stared down at the creased lines of Natsu's palm—Sonya hesitated, though, holding back with her trepidation and anxious worries. Byanka snapped her head toward her sister, a scathing scowl on her face.
"Come on, Sonya," Byanka said. "We have to do this!"
"I don't want to! I'm scared." Sonya sniffed, the quiet beginnings of tears glistening in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's alright," Natsu crooned, a gentle smile and soft hand on the younger twin's shoulder. "It's okay to be scared. Even I feel afraid sometimes."
Sonya whimpered, and Natsu cupped her face. His thumb wiped a wayward tear from her cheek, a touch so tender and mild that she leaned into it, finding her comfort and collection in the solace of his strength.
"You know what I do when I feel scared?" He whispered to her, a precious secret hiding in his words. "I try to be like fire."
Sonya blinked up at Natsu, uncertain. "Be like fire?"
"That's right," he nodded. "It's light and warm and even the smallest flame can burn brightly in the dark. Try to be like that. You can't scare fire."
Lucy watched him, something pure and painful settled in her heart like a stinging nettle. Natsu had always been good with children, a virtue she cherished most among all others. But now, with the weight of all that had happened and what was to come lurking beyond the walls of her home, it felt like she was peeking behind the curtains of fate and seeing what could be. A could be of bedtime stories and scraped elbows and piggyback rides and a doddering potential that Lucy and Natsu would call their own.
A future that had once been so promised to her, and now… only a chance. It was a possibility that hurt as much as it hoped.
Sonya nodded, the small girl gulping a breath as her body settled once more. Natsu smiled widely at her.
"That's it, take a deep breath."
Gently, Sonya took Natsu's hand from her cheek and splayed it before her. Her fingers reached out to take Byanka's, and for a moment, the sister's simply stared at the trenched surface of his palms. Lucy had never seen the Fortune magic of the twins in action before, only watched as Cana taught them the dangers of knowing secrets best left forgotten in the past and seeing the uncertain outcomes of trials yet to pass.
All at once, something moved through the twins, their eyes turning smooth like jade glass. Their faces dropped into numb blankness as they looked up at Natsu, looked through him. He blinked back at them, sensing whatever it was that had taken hold of the young girls but unsure of how to break the anticipating tension.
Sonya and Byank gasped, their small bodies going rigged, hands gripping tightly to Natsu's. He grunted, instinctively yanking against their grasp. They held firm. Lucy turned to Bisca, questions and worries leaping to her tongue. Bisca quickly put a finger to her lip, shaking her head.
"We can't interfere," she whispered, pushing Asuka against her hip.
So Lucy and Happy watched as the light of the lacrima in their home flickered, shadows reaching like hands from the grave. Natsu's gaze darted around him, a realizing concern touching his brow.
When Sonya and Byanka spoke, their voices rang in tandem and echoed like a whisper from a well.
"Forgotten son, displaced and harrowed
A journey of a thousand leagues and years.
Forbidden demon, blighted and shunned
A feast of ashes, fate, and fear.
Forced by fire, souls break and bleed
Crying from the cracks in their core.
A dead city lost, where curses breed.
Find shattered salvation, or let loose war."
Something invaded their home, a presence Lucy could feel like a hot breath on the back of her neck. Little paws clutched at her hair, and she knew Happy could feel it too by the twitch of his whiskers and the wild swiveling of his ears. Her mind was touched, an ethereal caress that held no malice or animosity or kindness—only a sense of time, ancient and transcending beyond the aspects of life and beginnings.
The twins squeezed Natsu's hands and each other's tighter, small fingers turning white. But he… seemed lost within himself, Lucy realized, eyes unfocused and drifting. He shook his head, like he was trying to shake a cobweb from his face. Something wasn't right.
"Both lost who wander broken paths.
Regret forged through pain and blight.
Amidst the shadows of the past,
Embrace the dark, forsake the light.
Within the fires of the shade
Burns the key to break the ties,
A sacrifice, a promise made.
His final breath, love's mournful cry."
His neck twitched, a sharp breath and a groan caught behind his teeth.
"When the last embers of battle burn low,
And the echoes of rage start to fade,
As Oblivion delivers the final blow
Forgotten son and demon, together unmade."
Bisca's cold hand touched her arm. The house had begun to shake around them, rattling the pictures and curios on the wall and vibrating the window panes. Natsu faltered, crumpling over his knees. His shoulders shivered, tremors that traveled down his arms and through his hands, where the twins' grips dug into his skin.
"Shatter and sacrifice. Fire burning fire. Shatter and sacrifice. Fire burning fire."
Quick strides carried her across the room, the other woman a moment behind. Those words, chanting and dissonant, filled the corners of the house. Happy fluttered to Asuka, guarding the young girl whose eyes flickered with fear and worry.
Lucy knelt by Natsu, bracing him against her shoulder. She watched Bisca crouch behind Sonya and Byanka, her lips tight and arms shaking as she covered their eyes with her hands. The droning, repeating words faltered. Tears fell from beneath Bisca's fingers, streaking the twin's cheeks as their chanting slowly faded into silence. The house settled around them, and it was quiet once again.
They released Natsu. He fell back against Lucy, his eyes swimming in delirium. Small red blemishes pitted his hands, indents the size of children's fingers. Bisca cradled the twins to her breast, comforting hushes and soothing touches like any good mother. Sonya openly wept, her hands trembling and fingertips purpling. Byanka was silent, hiding her hands in her armpits.
"We're sorry," she mumbled miserably, her teal eyes—just teal, just a kid—shining with hurt.
Natsu sat up, regaining himself. "It's okay. I'm… I'm fine. Are you two okay?"
He reached out to the little girls, but they flinched away from him. He tried not to let his dejection show on his face.
"They need water," Bisca said.
Happy fetched water, attending to the girls with an attentive ear turned toward Lucy and Natsu. The twins sat on their sofa, eyes dropped and holding their gloom. Asuka, for all her good-hearted attempts to make them feel better, couldn't seem to get little more than vacant stares returned to her.
Natsu, Lucy, and Bisca stood in a corner of the living room.
"What was that?" Lucy hissed. Bisca flinched, like she thought Lucy might pounce on her. "I know what fortune magic looks like, and that wasn't it."
"I'm not sure," Bisca said. Her eyes flicked over to the twins, watching them glumly sip from their cups. They were smart girls, they knew they were talking about them.
"You're not sure?" Lucy gawked. "This hasn't happened before?"
"Lucy." A small warning from her husband. She was coming on too strong. She already knew that. Answers were more important.
"It has. They did the same thing to Asuka when they first met. But it wasn't so… intense."
"Do you know what it is?" Natsu asked.
Bisca shook her head. "At first, we thought they only did a variant of fortune magic, like Cana's. Most times they just look at a person's palms and tell them what will happen to them tomorrow. When something like this happens, it's like they can't control themselves—they have to do it. If they don't, they get sick."
Lucy didn't like that, a sour ache in her stomach. Magic that hurt the people who wielded it was never meant for anything good.
"Cana and Laxus have a theory. They think it's a form of lost magic from centuries ago."
Lost magic, like the Slayer arts and the Arcs of Reality. Bisca dropped her voice low, almost a whisper.
"They think it's Oracle."
A word that rang into the deep recesses of Lucy's memory, into the history lessons of private tutors she thought she had long forgotten. Oracles, who could receive visions from the gods themselves. The practice had been outlawed during the second Great Guild War. A witch hunt that lasted several decades had wiped them all out.
"That's not possible."
"It's just a theory." Bisca said. She was starting to hate the word 'theory'. "We still don't know a lot about Sonya and Byanka; where they came from, who they learned their magic from, or even what else they might be capable of."
"That's gotta be really scary for them." Natsu frowned, looking down at his hands and the fading welts on his palms. "They shouldn't have to go through that being so young."
None of them could disagree with that.
"I have to get them home." Bisca moved to pass Lucy. "It's getting late."
The children, sensing the moment to leave, jumped up from the couch and crowded around her. Bisca lifted little Sonya into her arms, the small girl's eyes still puffy and red.
"I'm sorry, again, for barging in on you—but also for… everything else."
"No need to be sorry." Natsu smiled at Sonya, her big, sad eyes watching him absently. "I hope you feel better."
This time, when his knuckles gently grazed her cheek, she didn't flinch away.
Bisca and the children left with little fanfare. Just as Jellal had.
What a strange day it has been.
"You have any idea what Bisca was talking about?" Natsu asked. "'Cause I don't."
"Me neither, but it didn't sound good," Happy said, and they both looked to Lucy.
She stared back at them. A beat of silence stretched into a moment, then a long while. Shaking her head, she took his hands, thumbs smoothing over the small bruises.
"It's hard to explain, but…" A moment of lulling consideration, gathering her thoughts. "If that really was Oracle magic just now, then that wasn't just a prediction… it was prophecy."
Prophecy. She said it like he was supposed to know what that meant. He didn't.
Natsu didn't really even remember what the twins had said. Only that their words had been spoken by someone—something else, and they made his head hurt. Hurt in a way that bit into the dark flame in his core, pulling and tugging as if trying to shuck the curse from his soul. Perhaps he would have let it, if only he wasn't certain that a good chunk of himself would be torn away, too.
Everyone met in the station at the peak of dawn—Gajeel, Levy, and Pantherlily however, didn't show. They were following a lead, Juvia reported, another path that Levy felt sure would yield some helpful answers. She'd be in contact with Erza if her hunch proved to be correct. They had already left for Crocus, apparently, and when Lucy asked what they were hoping to find, Juvia only shrugged. Levy had failed to mention that particular detail, just that because they had found the answers they were seeking didn't mean she was going to stop researching a solution.
"She said she was working on 'plan D'... I don't know what that means?"
Natsu did. Levy was amazing.
The early train out of Magnolia was nearly bare of passengers. He was grateful for it: less people to witness his pitiful moans and pathetic trembling. He had promised himself that he wouldn't beg Wendy for her Troia spell—she needed to keep up her strength. But as soon as the train lurched on the tracks, so did his gut and the small breakfast he'd had nearly came right back up again. As it was, Wendy was in no fit state to cast spells herself, and so he settled with his suffering for the next four hours.
Lucy didn't let him take it easy, though. She'd snapped that celestial bracelet from Leo's wedding gift onto his wrist and drilled him on which symbols connected with which spirits. Some of them were intuitive: a clock face for Horologium, a cross for Crux, there was even a bead for Plue. But when it came to the zodiacs… it was all gobbledygook to him.
As foolish as it was, he would rather try to use his own magic. He knew it was possible, when the centipede had jump-started his battlemind and those wayward flames had bit into his knuckles. There was no fallout that followed, no kickback or breaking or ripping—only the burns that lanced through his fists. The conditions had changed, but the consequences remained the same.
He brought it up with Jellal, seated next to Erza across from him. He thought for a few moments, something in his distant eyes intrigued and calculating… and that hunger, same as before.
"All magic comes from a source," he said. "Curses are no different. Typically, our magic is fueled by our souls, expanded through origins, and strengthened through experience."
"But it is possible for magic to come from a different source," Erza added. "Such as objects, like Lucy's keys."
The train turned, and it was as if his stomach wanted to keep going straight. Natsu groaned.
"I don't think a key or whatever is going to help me," he mumbled through his teeth.
"But she has a point," Jellal smiled at her, a grateful mirth in the curve of his lips. Erza might have blushed… just a tiny bit. "You need to figure out what your new source is, how to harness it. What did Igneel teach you about magic control?"
That was such a long time ago… and yet, Natsu could hear the words as if Igneel had whispered them in his ear. He remembered his own hands, small and young, scorched and blistered.
"The flame burns you because it does not know you, and you do not know it. Listen. Feel. Know what it is to hold the dancing spark of life that is fire."
"He told me-" Natsu paused a moment as the train car rattled, bile rising in his throat. "-told me that I had to know it. Understand it."
"Then that is what you should do," Jellal stated. He said it so carelessly, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Lucy stiffened, her brows knotted with anxious concern.
"Is understanding the thing that wants to destroy us really the best idea?" she said. Natsu glanced at her face, saw the trepidation and lurking dread. "It's too risky. My spirits will keep you safe."
"Yes, it is very risky," Erza relented. "But it's important to keep all options open. Sooner or later, he's going to run out of beads on that bracelet."
"If it comes down to that, then I'll protect Natsu." Lucy gave Erza and Jellal hard looks, and they dropped the subject. Happy piped up from her lap, adding his own declaration to look out for him.
Erza had a point, though, whether Lucy liked it or not. Either way, there wasn't going to be any understanding of anything while he was on that damned train.
"Can I sleep now?"
Phlox was the definition of a secluded, small town, that kind that seems to sit on the landscape like a misplaced scattering of giant dollhouses. Did people actually live here? Natsu wasn't sure, glancing around at the empty windows and silent doors. They wandered down what appeared to be main street—the only street, really—hoping to find someone that could point them in the direction of the orchard.
But there was no one. Not even when Erza called out, her voice echoing hollowly down the road.
"Place is empty," Gray said, he and Juvia peering through the window of an establishment that might have been a cafe. "Tables are still set with food though. I'd say it's been a few days."
Jellal and Erza looked to each other, a grim suspicion shared between them. Natsu could feel it too, like spider legs fleeting down his back.
Something was wrong.
"You folks looking for something?"
An old lady, withered and hunched and wheelchair bound, appeared from the shadowed entrance of a nondescript building. Her skin was like crumpled paper someone had tried to smooth back out, every inch of her tinted gray in some way or another from her hair to the beds of her fingernails to the whites of her eyes. Natsu thought for a second that she was a corpse, rolling around in its chair with the wind, until she opened her nearly-toothless mouth and spoke again.
"Ain't much around these parts." Her voice was delicate, soft. "Are you lost?"
They all stared at her for a beat, until Lucy took the unsure step and plastered a smile on her lips.
"We're looking for the persimmon orchard."
The old woman blinked at Lucy, a thick silence falling between her words. Her face twitched, things she probably wanted to say if only she could remember what they were supposed to be. She wasn't all there, Natsu thought, and part of him pitied her. She needed help, but yet she was alone. The woman turned in her wheelchair and pointed a bony finger down main street, out of town.
"Just keep walking, should take 'bout a day to reach the orchard." Her shaky hands gripped the wheels of her chair, rolling her back. "It ain't persimmon season yet, though."
"Thanks… uh, what happened to everybody?"
The old lady only stared at Lucy as she wheeled herself back through the door, back into the darkness.
"It ain't persimmon season yet."
Her eyes flicked to Natsu the moment before she was out of sight. A cold shiver trickled down his spine, an unease that followed him out of town and all the way to the orchard. The sun was low in the sky by the time they had stepped into the rows of trees, long shadows stretching between the thin trunks. There were no fruits on the trees. The old lady had been right.
A quaint house, hand built and masterfully crafted, sat in the middle of the orchard. Across a large yard, a tall barn sat dark and silent. Light beamed through the windows of the house, smoke curling out of the chimney. Erza took the lead as they approached, stepping up on the small porch. Her armored fingers knocked three times on the door.
A waiting lull stretched into a while with no answer, no sound nor sign of movement or life from within the house. Erza knocked again.
"Hello? My name is Erza Scarlet, I'm with the Fairy Tail guild," she said loudly. Natsu wandered up onto the porch beside her, meandering to the window. "I would like to ask your family some questions about a dangerous mage we believe comes here every now and then."
Still no answer.
A sharp scent stung Natsu's nose; metallic, rotten, almost sickly sweet like burnt candy. He looked through the window, saw a simple bedroom with two small beds and a plethora of children's toys. Through the open bedroom door, half of a fine dining was table set with food that had yet to be touched.
Dark stains, glistening and crimson, splattered the walls and furniture, smeared in large trails across the floor. His gut twisted, a hard kick that jolted through his whole body. That was… a lot of blood.
"Erza," Wendy warned. She could smell it, too.
A sword flashed into her palm as she stepped back from the door. Wood crumbled and splintered beneath her heel, the door jumping on its hinges as it burst open. She rushed inside, Jellal and everyone else quick to follow after her-
"Holy shit," Gray swore, his lip curling.
The stench of blood hit Natsu like a punch to the face. They had barged into the living room, amidst broken chairs and torn cushions and yet more blood sprayed and drying from floor to ceiling. There, in the middle of the den, piled on a woven rug soaked through with red, four bodies—a man, a woman, and two boys who couldn't have been older than nine or ten, all slashed to near ribbons. Wet sounds whispered through the air, gurgling and gasping, damaged lungs straining for air.
They were still alive—if only just barely.
Lucy gasped beside him, a choked sob caught behind her teeth. His heart pounded through his head, a heavy beat of disbelief and unfamiliar, unbridled rage.
"Oh good, you made it."
A growl crawled up Natsu's throat, his gaze swinging toward the dining room. Konza sat at the head of the table, nibbling politely from a small plate. Flecks of vermillion dotted her face and hands. Leaning on the wall behind her, a glass scythe, the blade dark and dripping.
Konza wiped her mouth with a napkin. Then she smiled, her yellow teeth flashing with excitement, and Natsu knew for sure that he was going to kill this girl.
"I was beginning to worry."
A/N: And so we plunge into the heart of darkness.
Between writing new chapters and rewriting old ones, it's taking a lot of time to make this story what I want it to be. But I will finish this story, of that I promise.
As always, read, review, and enjoy!